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Norwegian
External Resources https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/wiki/index#wiki_norwegian A HEARTFELT WELCOME TO THE NORWEGIAN COURSE! Norwegian is a language with simpler grammar than many other European languages, but it is still a gendered language with three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Grammatical Gender All feminine gendered nouns can be classified as masculine gender as well. In theory, one could treat all feminine nouns as masculine ones, but most Norwegians still use the feminine form, especially for certain words. The choice really is up to you! Both en kvinne and ei kvinne are grammatically correct, and the tendency to use the feminine gender depends on geography and dialect. We have decided to teach it where it is most natural to use it, with words such as jente meaning girl, for example. Pronouns Norwegian pronouns are very straightforward and correspond well to English ones: Verbs Conjugation couldn't be simpler. All conjugated verbs have an -r stem in the present, and verbs don't change according to the subject! How easy is that? Although not as common as det, den is used to mean it or that when referring to a masculine or feminine subject, and not a neuter one. Pronunciation As a general rule, words are spelled as they're pronounced in Norwegian. One exception is words beginning with hv, such as hva, meaning what. In this word, the h is silent. In addition, there are several letters and letter combinations that are pronounced differently from English. Norwegian also has three special vowels, Æ, Ø and Å. Special Notes on Common Words DEFINITE FORMS The definite form, the man, the woman, et cetera, is formed by attaching the indefinite article onto the end of the noun. This ending is called a postfix or a suffix. Although the t is pronounced as such in the phrase et barn, it turns silent in the definite form, barnet, which is pronounced more like barneh. This is the case with all neuter nouns in the singular definite form. Be sure to drop the t sound, otherwise you might sound rather Swedish. For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity in the definite form: Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all feminine nouns. Please consult the tips and notes section for the first lesson if you would like a review of the Norwegian grammatical genders. Common Phrases Below is a list of common phrases in the Norwegian language, for your reference. Languages and Nationalities In Norwegian, most names of languages are derived from the name of the country, the adjective or the nationality with the ending –sk at the end. Below are a few examples. As you may have noticed above, Norwegians do not capitalize adjectives, nationalities or languages, only countries. All words are capitalized if they come at the beginning of the sentence, just like in English. MEASURE WORDS Remember that in Norwegian, the word for of, av, is omitted where one would normally use it in English to join a measure word with another noun. Neat, huh? Animals Many animal names in Norwegian share etymological ties with English ones, but the meaning has drifted over time in one direction or another. Below are some examples. Beware these false friends! The following words are true friends, meaning that the words are similar in both spelling and meaning. You know more Norwegian than you thought you did! DEFINITE FORMS The definite form, "the man" "the woman" et cetera, is formed by placing the indefinite article "a/an" or in Norwegian, "en/et" on the end of the word instead of at the beginning. This is called a postfix or a suffix. For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity: Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all feminine nouns. It is also normal to use the masculine article "en" for indefinite forms, even when preferring a feminine suffix in definite. This is not considered an error! OBJECT PRONOUNS We were introduced to the Norwegian pronouns in the first skill. Let's have a look at them here: As in English, the pronouns above only pertain to subjects. The pronouns at the receiving end of a verb, in other words the object pronouns, are as follows: Although not as common as det, den is used to mean it or that when referring back to a masculine or feminine subject, and not a neuter one. In addition, the pronoun han is an alternative form of ham. PLURALS With few exceptions, most masculine or feminine nouns (most nouns) pluralize with -er or -r. Words that end in -er already add an extra -e to signify the plural. Single-syllable neuter nouns, such as hus house and dyr animal, often do not change spelling in the indefinite plural. How then can you tell the difference between hus meaning house and hus meaning houses? That depends on context and adjective endings, which we will cover a bit later in the course. One exception to these rules is the Norwegian word for "man" which pluralizes in an irregular way that's almost identical to English: Here are some additional common irregular plurals, a couple of which are also irregular in English. DEFINITE PLURALS With very few exceptions, all nouns can be converted to the definite plural form, i.e. the books, the cows, the dogs... by changing the -er ending on the plural form to an -ene ending: Many neuter nouns do not have to follow this rule. Instead, they can become definite plurals by adding on an -a ending instead. The choice is yours, but the -ene ending is somewhat more common. Keep in mind that the word "barn" meaning "child" almost always becomes "barna" in the definite plural, although "barnene" is grammatically correct as well. PRESENT The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now: The present tense is also in general statements that are independent of time: For things that repeat and that are still recurring: The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain: As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English. You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -sin the third person singular in the present tense. Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary). The table below shows you how to do it: There are three groups of verbs with different patterns for forming tenses in Norwegian, but in the present case they all behave in the same way as you can see. Location To describe where something is, Norwegian often forgoes the verb to be in favor of to stand or to lie. Most often, upright objects with legs, such as beds, stand, while other objects, especially those on their side, tend to lie, just like in English. Possessive Adjectives Possessive adjectives change depending on the gender and number of the possessor and the possessed. Be sure to pay special attention to "sin, si, sitt, & sine," which do not have equivalents in English. MY The Definite Form The above form takes the definite form of the noun and places the possessive adjective after it. This is the more common form in colloquial Norwegian, and the one you will encounter most often. * Faren min er fargeblind. * My father is colorblind. Another form is as follows: The Indefinite Form This form takes the possessive adjective and places it before the indefinite form of the noun. This form is considered more formal and places special emphasis on the possessor. * Mitt barn er perfekt. * My child is perfect. Below is a complete list of the possessive adjective combinations: YOUR (SINGULAR) * Hvem er foreldrene dine? * Who are your parents? SIN, SI, SITT, & SINE The above are an interesting set of possessive adjectives in Norwegian. They all translate to his, her, its, or their and can only be attached to objects in a sentence. Sin, Si, Sitt, & Sine describe something that the subject has or owns, not somebody else. This distinction does not exist in English. In the last sentence, we use faren hennes instead of faren sin because her father is the subject, not the object, of the sentence. HIS, HER, OR THEIR (OWN) HIS * Hunden hans er vennlig. * His dog is friendly. HER * Hva heter barnet hennes? * What is her child's name? OUR * Vi elsker døtrene våre. * We love our daughters. YOUR (PLURAL) * Hvor kommer familien deres fra? * Where does your family come from? THEIR * Datamaskinen deres fungerer ikke. * Their computer does not work. Notice how deres can mean your (pl.) or their. You will be able to tell the difference through context. CLOTHING This lesson introduces you to clothing as well as the Norwegian word seg. This word is the reflexive pronoun for all third-person nouns, himself, herself, themselves, etc. It is used in many verbs. In fact, the reflexive is far more common in Norwegian than in English. For clothing, one uses har på seg to describe what someone is wearing. It literally means, have on oneself and is the equivalent of the English, have on. * Hun har på seg en hatt. * She has on (herself) a hat. * She's wearing a hat. That and Those We learned early on how to describe definite nouns with the appropriate gender- and number-specific suffixes. In order to specify further with the word that or those, all we do is add one gender- and number-specific word to the mix. That & Those DIRECTION AND MOTION In Norwegian, adverbs of place that describe where something is change when they become adverbs of motion and describe where something moves. Below are some examples: Be careful to use the proper adverb for each situation. For most of the words above, the endings fall off when in motion. Think of them like a pocket book on top of a car. The car moves, so the pocket book falls off. The words hit and dit are related to the antiquated English words hither and thither, which used to describe here and there in motion. English no longer uses this construct, but Norwegian still does. PREPOSITIONS As in English, all prepositions in Norwegian stand before the noun. Below is a reference sheet for the prepositions introduced in this chapter. Adjectives Norwegian adjectives change for gender, number, indefinite and definite forms. Let's take a look at adjectives join to nouns by the phrase to be, starting with the adjective stor, which means big or great. THE INDEFINITE FORM So far, so good. There is no change to the adjective in either masculine or feminine form. As you can see above, the neuter noun changes the spelling of stor to include a -tending, and the plural noun changes stor to include an -e ending. This pattern applies to most adjectives in the indefinite form, as shown below. Many adjectives ending in -ig or -sk, like viktig and norsk, do not sound pleasant with a -t ending. This is why we do not add a -t to these specific adjectives in the neuter form. We do still add the -e ending in the plural form, however! THE DEFINITE FORM The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same. Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e. In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below. Missing Endings in Old and Famous Names As students of Danish may be aware, the postfixes after the nouns above are absent in Danish, and as a legacy of Danish colonialism, some Norwegian phrases lack the noun endings shown in the table above. These words are generally famous titles or institutions, such as The White House or The French Academy. See how they operate below. Note that det hvite huset can also mean the white house, just not the one the US President lives inside. COMBINING POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS WITH ADJECTIVES There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works. In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules. LITEN The adjective liten meaning little or small is the most highly irregular adjective in the Norwegian language. Take a look at how it declines. Commit this table to memory, because as in English, the word small is used a lot. Pay special attention to context, and in time, these adjective endings become second nature. Colors as adjectives Below is a reference chart for all of the most basic Norwegian colors. Most colors change their endings for gender and number, like most other adjectives in Norwegian. Certain colors are irregular, however, in certain situations. The words hvit, grå and blå have an extra -t in their neuter forms, and grå and blå also have the option of omitting the plural ending. Unlike most adjectives, the words rosa, oransje, and lilla never change for gender or number. They always remain the same. Colors as nouns Colors can also be nouns. In that case they look a lot like the neuter form of the adjective: FAMILY Welcome to the family skill! Family words are some of the most common in Norwegian, but also some of the most irregular. Pay attention to how the following words pluralize. In Norwegian, each grandparent has a unique name that's very intuitive. Bestemor is the generic term for grandmother. Bestefar is in turn the generic term for grandfather. TIME In order to ask what time it is, you may ask, Hva er klokka? or literally, What is the clock? The response will be something like, Klokka er to. which means the clock is two, or in other words, It's two o'clock. Several Norwegian expressions of time use the preposition i in combination with a noun. These must be learned independently and treated as completely separate from the nouns they're used with. For example: Dates Below are the days of the week. The reason they're so similar to English is because English gets most of the words for the days of the week from the names of Norse gods. Keep in mind that the days of the week, unlike English, are only capitalized at the beginning of the sentence. The g at the end of these words may or may not be pronounced. These are the months of the year, also normally in lower-case. Keep in mind the RS sound in mars makes it sound like marsh. This RS letter combination creates an SH sound in the Norwegian language. Work Unlike in English, Norwegian usually drops the indefinite article when describing someone's profession. Be mindful that constructions such as jeg er en student are also grammatical, but they are far less common. INFINITIVES To infinitives, and beyond! Most infinitive verbs in Norwegian end in the stem -e. There are many, many exceptions, however. A few modal constructions exist that link to infinitive verbs directly, such as kanand vil. Many infinitives link with other parts of the sentence with the word å, which translates to to, as in, å se or to see. This applies to all situations where an infinitive is present without a modal verb. You may have noticed that in the final sentence above, the verb å lage mat could have easily translated to cooking, and you would be correct. Sometimes an infinitive beginning with an å can act like a gerund, which is nerd for a noun ending in -ing. QUESTIONS Yes-No Questions All yes-no questions in Norwegian can be asked by simply switching the subject and the verb, much like with the English verb to be. As shown above, you can answer such a such a question either in the affirmative ja or the negative nei. Often the verb from the question, here har, is repeated in the reply. Jo exists as a way to negate an assertion implied in a negative question, as if to say, on the contrary. Question Words Below are words that begin questions as they do in English: Just like in English, these question words send the subject to the other side of the verb. Keep in mind some constructions cannot be translated word-for-word. WHICH The word which is used somewhat more often in Norwegian than it is in English. If the word which can be used in English, always use a form of hvilken for the Norwegian translation. Below are all the forms of hvilken, meaning which (and sometimes what, as shown above). By now, you should be getting a feel for the patterns that dominate Norwegian grammar in reference to gender and number. CONJUNCTIONS Below is a short list of some of the most common conjunctions in the Norwegian language. Norwegian conjunctions act very similarly to English ones, with a couple of special rules. Ikke Keep in mind that in dependent clauses, the negation ikke gets pulled to a position in-between the subject and the main verb. This occurs with several other constructions as well. This is one weird quirk with Norwegian grammar, but it will sound natural after a while. Isn't that interesting? V-2 Word Order The V-2 Rule is a linguistic law that applies to all Germanic languages... except English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis. What it essentially means is that Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements. The V-2 Rule applies to dependent clauses that begin sentences. In this specific situation, the whole dependent clause is treated as being in the first position, so the verb in the independent clause comes immediately after it, in the second position, followed by the subject in the independent clause. This may sound jarring, but this rule of inversion becomes easy enough after some exposure. If you think this word order is weird, try German. Adverbs In Norwegian, adverbs usually follow the verb. One exception is that adverbs of time often appear at the end of the sentence or clause. Another exception is related to the V-2 Rule in Germanic linguistics, which applies to all Germanic languages... besides English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis, but don't get crazy. The final example is a demonstration of the V-2 Rule. When the adverb moved to the front of the statement, the subject moved to the other side of the verb har. This is because Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements.